


There's No Plan B

by wordsareleftbehind (froggydarren)



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-15
Updated: 2013-11-15
Packaged: 2018-01-01 16:38:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1046115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggydarren/pseuds/wordsareleftbehind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Sometimes, random headcanons happen - based on the promo for 5x06 (not spoilery, though). </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's No Plan B

The first time was almost an accident. Darren had always been drawn to the piano in the rehearsal studio, like a moth to a flame, then the one in the choir room later on. When he first got to be on the McKinley set, he followed the official rules, still. _No touching the piano, no playing the piano, no messing with equipment and sets._ He’d often brought his own guitar to set, whether it was in Pasadena or Paramount, but the draw continued to be there.

Then a day came when they were all exhausted and falling apart at the seams, forgetting lines they’d memorized days before, missing steps from the carefully practiced choreography. Darren had forgotten his guitar at home and didn’t bring anything to entertain himself in his haste to get to the set on time. His fingers were itching, exacerbated by the twitching and fidgeting from Chris by his side. Chris who had his laptop out during every break; regardless of how long it was. There was a silent agreement between them to not disturb each other when one of them dove into a creative mood, so Darren knew better than to try and talk to Chris, who was typing furiously. But man, he was _bored_. And Chris was squirmy and aggravated just enough to make Darren want to climb out of his own skin.

That was how he ended up walking around the room to relieve some tension and how he ended up veering out of the way of one of the choreographers and how he landed with his hand on the piano keys. No one flinched when the notes rang through the room and Darren’s resolve to stay away broke with the random noise. He turned and poked at some keys gently, then looked around for a reaction. Everyone was busy, though, and no one told him to stop, so he sat down and seized the opportunity. Chris had looked up the moment the notes from the piano started taking shape and smiled; the first one he’d managed that day. That was reason enough for Darren to continue playing. He’d fallen for the beautiful boy… no, man, no matter how others viewed him… almost immediately. It had taken a while to admit it to himself, but that day, when Darren sat down at the piano for the first time to play a song to distract them all from the stress of the long shoot, he wasn’t really playing for himself, nor for anyone else in the room.

He played for Chris. For the bright smile that appeared on Chris’ face when he recognized the song. Darren played because of the way Chris’ shoulders relaxed visibly and the way he mouthed the words along with Darren’s singing. For the way that for a little while, Darren felt like the center of Chris’ universe.

_It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd settles in…_

It happened again, any time Darren felt like Chris was spinning into too much stress, he’d wait for a break and beeline to the piano. Never once saying who he was playing for, he’d still wonder if others knew, because he couldn’t keep his eyes off Chris. He played everything that came to his mind, occasionally songs others had asked for; other times songs that had been on his mind. Then there were times when he’d stopped himself from playing his own songs, just to avoid being too obvious about _whom_ he was singing for. He’d pretend to practice songs that he had to perform in the show, played songs for others to practice to.

Lea was the first one to catch on, of course. She’d watched him with a curious expression on one particularly emotional day, and then glanced over to Chris who was still oblivious to Darren’s singing being serenades. Only much later, during a drunken night in, did Darren find out that the day she figured it out was the day she started telling Chris to act on his crush. She’d known, of course, like most of the original cast members, that Chris had been _obsessed_ with Darren’s plays, that he snuck into the Harry Potter panel at Comic Con for the little while that he could. Chris had sworn them all to secrecy the moment Darren was cast, though.

But as time went on, Darren was falling deeper and harder. With each on screen kiss, each rehearsal, he wanted to erase the character lines and make those scenes be about more. It hadn’t happened for quite some time, not until the Glee Live shows. It was then that Darren found a piano in a bar they’d visited on one of their stops and played. There was a difference that night, because Darren was fortified by alcohol and reached his point of “now or never”. So he played something, a few songs after he’d commandeered the piano and when the bar was only occupied by the cast, that he’d held back from until then.

_Say, wasn't that a funny day? Gee you had a funny way, a way about you..._

His eyes didn’t leave Chris throughout the song. Not for a beat, not even when he felt Lea’s hands on his shoulders as she came up and joined in, with, what Chris had told him later, a smug “I told you so” smirk in Chris’ direction. Nothing happened that night, or for the next few. Besides conversations between them when - conveniently - they kept getting assignments for the same room (Darren would later find out it was rigged by Lea, Amber, Mark and Cory). He tried to tell Chris how he felt, but Chris had steeled himself against his own crushes for so long, Darren couldn’t find a way to break those walls.

Until the on-stage kiss. Until Chris finally realized that Darren was serious. Until they spent the rest of the night after the concert smiling, laughing, holding hands like their life depended on it. Until Darren found a piano again in the after-party venue and played again, this time officially dedicating a song to Chris.

_When you wish upon a star Makes no difference who you are..._

It was the first time Darren played that song, but after that, it became tradition. He’d play it at a gig in London while Chris was back in the States filming, and he’d call Chris during the concert to let him hear the song over the phone. He’d play the song in a random dingy bar in Paris when he was on holidays with his brother, and called Chris again before he started just to hear his voice and tell him to listen.

Of course, he kept playing on set, too, maybe even more once he was in McKinley’s choir room with the piano only sometimes occupied by Brad. By the end of the year, everyone was used to Darren’s serenades. They’d encouraged them, even, especially when stress levels were shooting through the roof. When he was off set and in New York, he still played over the phone, though those ones were for Chris only.

When Ryan came up with the idea of doing _Teenage Dream_ live, with only Darren on piano, both of them froze and then protested. The song was _theirs_ , so was the piano thing, and neither wanted it destroyed by the memory of Kurt and Blaine falling apart. But Ryan wouldn’t budge and somehow, they got through the scene, aware that their emotions were entirely character-based.

_I know you get me, so I let my walls come down…_

Darren spent the night after that playing one song after another, just to erase the memory of the scene from their minds. Then again when they previewed the episode and when it aired, just to make sure neither of them took it as the end of their special thing. It was why he insisted on the keyboard during his tour, later on. Most nights, there was a phone nearby to record or to call Chris during that part of the set. When Chris got his new house, it was one of the conditions that it had to have enough space for a piano. It was that summer that they’d moved the serenades to a more private place, since the hushed whispers about them were not as easily contained anymore, not with all the extra people on set.

~~~~~~~~

When Darren plays now, it’s when they’re at home, Chris sitting by his side most of the times, leaning into Darren’s side and sometimes singing along quietly. There are evenings of being tipsy, when Chris climbs up on top of the piano, keeping his feet up and kicking them, his hands below his chin. He leans down to Darren often and they steal a kiss or two during instrumental parts of songs.

The calls continue too, when they’re away from each other for any longer than a day. Chris knows now to expect a phone call because Darren is likely to track down a piano and call; to have Chris listen in. And almost without fail, one of the songs ends up being _Wish Upon a Star_.

There are nights when Chris doesn’t pick up the phone. When they leave things stewing after an argument and Chris is refusing to be the one to give in. After those nights, he still checks his phone first thing in the morning only to find voicemail after voicemail with Darren’s broken singing and all their favorite songs.

He knows it is Darren’s “I’m sorry” when needed. It is Darren’s “I love you”, his “I miss you” when he can’t be there. It’s his “I’m thinking of you” and “you’re with me wherever I go”. Chris warns him, sometimes, that maybe one day it’ll be too much, or that it won’t be special anymore, but somehow, it always is. Hearing Darren over the phone or in person is always that little special. It’s not a birthday thing, nor an anniversary thing, it’s just Darren playing and singing his heart out and handing it over to Chris.

_Here I am, baby, signed, sealed, delivered… I’m yours…_

~~~~~~~

Years from now, they’ll talk about it. They’ll invite someone they trust into their house and Darren will sit at the piano and play one of _their_ songs. He’ll let his fingers run over the keys while Chris talks about how he hesitated, about how hard it was to keep things under the wrap. That’s when Darren will finally tell Chris that he’d been in love from the first moment they met, that’s when Chris will admit to the giddy crush he’d had on Darren since before Darren was on Glee.

Chris will laugh while Darren starts a love song, reminiscing about how confusing it was to hear Darren playing those every time. How he wondered if it meant more, but how he never let himself hope. Darren will play _Words_ because it’s their inside joke about Darren’s inability to _not_ sing his feelings.

They’ll charm the interviewer with a rendition of some of the songs they did on the show, then a special performance of _Chances Are_. They’ll try to play together, Chris trying to remember the things Darren’s tried to teach him. They’ll kiss when Chris gets it right, to keep up the deal of a kiss per a successful lesson. Then they’ll sing again, to each other and barely aware of anyone else in the room.

_See the times are changing_

_And I’m sure of nothing that I know_

**_Except this is us, and this is love, and this is where I’m home_ **

 

**Author's Note:**

> Songs: Billy Joel - Piano Man, Darren Criss - Don’t You, Pinocchio - Wish Upon a Star, Katy Perry - Teenage Dream, Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours), Emeli Sande - Where I Sleep


End file.
